A Grateful Notebook
Paid subscriptions, keeping a notebook, t-shirts, AI on a book cover, Too Much Happiness, and more.
Hello, Dear Reader!
This is A Book Designer’s Notebook, a newsletter about books, design, and what I’m working on. I’m Nathaniel Roy.
This week, I’m grateful. A Book Designer’s Notebook recently crossed 60 subscribers,1 and my recent two–part conversation with book designer Jordan Wannemacher has garnered more than 400 views. Maybe that’s not much in the grand scheme of things, but it’s certainly more than I expected for this little newsletter experiment. If we were all in a room together, I’d be overwhelmed. Thank you! There is much—probably too much—to read in this world, so I am grateful for your time and attention.
A related note: recently, I turned on paid subscriptions. $5 a month, or $50 for the year. Bold, I know, especially after just announcing that there’s only 66 of you. I’m not expecting many (or any, really) paid subscriptions, but I decided that I am spending too much time on this thing to not have at least the option to earn a little income. And, as a person who has long struggled with knowing the world doesn’t need another wannabe writer,2 this is a symbolic way for me value my own writing and take it seriously. There are no paid perks as of yet, unless you count my undying love, affection, and attention,3 and the knowledge that you are helping keep this thing free for everyone. However, I am brainstorming some and you can bet your bottom dollar that if you are a paid subscriber you will have a say.
So. If you are feeling generous, and like what I do here, you can become a patron of the Nathaniel Roy arts. If not, and I cannot emphasize this enough, no worries.4 I am grateful for you, your time, and attention all the same.
On to this week’s notebook.
What I’m Working On
Some Writing
Coming next week: a newsletter essay about a topic near and dear to my heart: keeping a notebook. I quote from my teenage diary! I quote Joan Didion! I attempt to convince you to keep a notebook! I really like this one, and I hope you will too.
I’m still figuring out the cadence of this newsletter thing—should it be every week, alternating essays and notebooks? Every two weeks; every month? Whenever the heck I feel like it? Regardless, look for that soon, because of the five to ten newsletters I have at various stages of completion, that one is the most complete.
If you liked my interview with Jordan Wannemacher, there’s good news: I plan on doing lots more “Interview with a Book Designer.” I have a few conversations tentatively lined up and a nearly endless list of guests I’d like to talk to.
More forthcoming book design stuff: I’m writing pieces about ugly book covers that are actually good (still working on that phrasing), the tell-tale signs of a self-published book, and tongue–in–cheek look at my cover design process.
Some Design
T-Shirts! In a fit of entrepreneurship earlier this year (careful, it’s contagious), I decided to try my hand at designing and selling t-shirts. After brainstorming several, and creating a few, I completely stalled out when attempting to build the perfect online storefront on my website. However, a few weeks ago, I said “screw it” and quietly made a few shirts available on my site, perfection be damned. There’s three right now, but there will be more, and they will all be collagey, bookish, or designy. Like me.
I’m working on a book cover in which I am attempting to recreate an AI image the author generated and brought to the publisher. Two rounds in, and the author seems to be unhappy and leaning towards the original AI image.5 The image is cool looking, sure, but the resolution is too small for a printed book cover. And as it stands, I am very concerned about the ethics of AI–generated images. We’ll see how this one shakes out.
In happier news, I had a cover approved this week! I’m happy with it, and the publisher is a newer client that is fast becoming a favorite. They’re local, they pay well, and they publish good books. I’ve done two covers for them so far, and I’m excited to share them once the titles have been announced. In the mean time, it’s time for my favorite day of the week: invoice day.
Reading, Watching, Listening
Reading
I’m in a bit of a reading slump, so I’m throwing lots of books at it to see what sticks. I’m still in the middle of Too Much Happiness by Alice Munro and Talk Stories by Jamaica Kincaid, the two books I picked up in New York last month. I will finish them, but I’m not going to pressure myself to do so quickly.
I started the 20th(!) book for my book club with my mom: The Unreality of Memory by Elisa Gabbert. It’s an essay collection I’ve been meaning to read for a while about disaster and our cultural responses to it. So far, so good.
To cure this slump, and to read something while I sat in my son’s room as he fell asleep, I started reading An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten via the Libby app. It’s a follow-up to An Elderly Lady is Up To No Good. Both are whimsical, Swedish, small and connected short story collections that follow Maud, the eponymous elderly lady that commits a string of murders. Dark, comedic, and very good.
This week a book I requested at the library became available that I had completely forgot about. It’s called Dearborn by Ghassan Zeineddine, a short story collection set in Dearborn, Michigan, a place about 20 miles from where I grew up.6 I wasn’t sure if I was going to read it or not, but then I read the first line of the back cover marketing copy: “In Dearborn, a father teaches his son how to cheat the IRS and hide their cash earnings inside of frozen chickens.” I had to crack it open. I think this is the one that might break the slump. Back cover copy matters!
Watching
I don’t watch a lot of TV these days, but my wife and I are devoted fans of the streaming platform Dropout (formerly College Humor). Recently, we watched the two-part season finale to Game Changer, a game show whose “game” changes every episode. The finales are always incredible and often parody other game shows or reality television (like Survivor). This one is modeled after The Circle. (I think. I haven’t watched The Circle. You don’t need to in order to enjoy Game Changer).
Listening
I’ve been listening to podcast from Sam Anderson and The New York Times called Animal. Anderson is the writer of one of my—surprisingly—favorite books, Boom Town, if only for the fact that he made me care about a place I never thought I would: Oklahoma City. He’s an incredible writer. In this podcast, Anderson travels the world to ask “what can we gain by looking another animal in the eye?” If you like animals of any kind, you should listen to this podcast.
Thanks!
Thank you for reading! I would love it if these notebooks became something of a forum. What if this became a little community? I’ve never loved the spotlight in a crowded room anyways. What are you working on? What are you reading, watching, or listening to? I want to hear it. Leave a comment, or simply reply to this email.
Until next time!
—Nathaniel
And one paid subscriber! And one paid unsubscriber! Was that an accident? That’s okay! Do you want your $5 back? I’m not overthinking this at all!
Especially of the white dude variety.
The jury is still out on that one.
It’s bold and italic, so you know I’m serious.
Things can get hairy when the author has more than a little say in their book cover.
Can you tell I like short stories?
I love the peek into your sketchbook and can't wait for more. The weekly rhythm is good for me and forces me to publish something, even if it's different than I did last week (and I think that's a good thing). I would say experiment, have fun, try different things and see what sticks. Keep it up!
Loving the newsletter! Congrats on all the successes so far. I can't wait to hear more about ugly-but-amazing covers. And how your AI prompted project turns out. I recently had an author share AI-generated covers as inspo and felt...really weird about it.